The electronics revolution which has occurred in recent years has been occasioned by the development of the semi-conductor. Integrated circuit devices have impacted significantly upon the consumer, industrial, governmental, and defense markets.
In many of the applications to which such electronic components are put, it is essential that they be 100 percent accurate in their operation and that all portions of the component function properly. In other applications, however, an IC may not require as close tolerances as are necessary in more sophisticated applications and may not need be completely functional in all circuitry paths.
For various reasons, the manufacturing process for integrated circuits, as in the case of other manufacturing processes, will produce units of different quality. For this reason, it is necessary to test the units not only to answer the relatively unsophisticated question of whether they are operable or not, but also to classify the units by degree of operability and quality. The best units can be used in applications wherein close tolerances and accuracy are essential. Those of lesser quality and integrity still might, however, be able to be used in other less demanding applications.
To this end, various high speed testing devices have been developed in order to ascertain the quality of function and integrity of various integrated circuit devices. Typically, such testers can perform testing upon in excess of three units per second. It is, therefore, necessary to provide handling equipment capable of feeding units to the test site and conveying those units away from the test site at at least as rapid a rate.
One particular type of integrated circuit is known as a dual-in-line package (DIP). With DIPs, as with other integrated circuit packages, a particularly important phase of the device handling is one wherein individual devices to be tested are emptied from tubular structures in which they are stored onto tracks in a magazine for subsequent feeding to a test site. DIPs are maintained in transportation and storage tubes in which they are aligned end to end, each of opposite ends being closed by an appropriately constructed pin. Handling, as presently known in the art, incorporates the manual emptying of devices in such a tube onto a track within the magazine. This is accomplished by removing a pin at one end of the tube, substantially aligning the open end with an upper end of an inclined track within the magazine, and tipping the tube so that the devices will pass out therefrom and onto the track with which the tube is aligned. As can be seen, therefore, the time involved in loading the magazine of the handler, although not slow when thought of in most contexts, is limiting when one considers the particular application to which the equipment with regard to which the present invention is employed.
It is to these problems in the prior art that the invention of the present document is directed. The present invention is an apparatus for bulk feeding DIP transportation and storage tubes having a first, elevated end thereof opened, to a mechanism for singulating the devices stored therein and emptying the devices from the tube. All of these functions are performed automatically without requiring the benefit of operator intervention other than the opening of the tubes at one end and placing them in a hopper with open ends positioned above opposite ends of the sticks.